News Release

More Anti-corruption Bills to Be Introduced in India’s Parliament

The Indian
government has prepared seven anti-corruption bills to be considered in
Parliament in its forthcoming session

Civil society
leaders who led anti-graft protests in the summer are threatening to restart
agitation if suitable legislation for instituting an ombudsman is not
introduced

Corruption is
hurting growth and discouraging both domestic and foreign investment

Civil society,
business leaders and the government agree on the need to introduce transparency
in government, end discretionary decision-making, make the judicial process
more effective, create a public attitude of zero tolerance for corruption and
bring back Indian money parked in tax havens abroad

Mumbai, India, 13 November 2011 – The government has announced a series of measures to tackle corruption and is set to propose
for consideration seven bills in the forthcoming session of Parliament, Ashwani
Kumar, Minister
of State for Planning, Science, Technology and Earth Sciences of India, said in a BBC television debate today at the World Economic
Forum’s India Economic Summit.

These
include bills to protect whistleblowers
and a bill to prevent bribery by foreign officials. “Legislation cannot
be made under public frenzy,” he argued, referring to widespread civil society
protests in the summer, saying the protests had turned “we the people” into “we
the mob”.

The civil society collective
that led anti-corruption protests in the summer – informally termed Team Anna,
after the Gandhian “Anna” Hazare who became the face of the agitation – will restart
agitation if the ruling Congress party does not introduce a bill to create an
ombudsman that takes into account all of their concerns, said activist Kiran
Bedi, Founder
and Secretary-General, Navjyoti India Foundation.

“There
is a huge trust deficit,” Bedi said, demanding that the government must include
provisions in the “Lokpal Bill” to include all government officials, including
law-makers and judicial officials under the ambit of the law. It must make bidding of all valuable contracts
transparent and all political donations public.

Adi
B. Godrej, Chairman, The Godrej Group, Godrej Industries, and President
Designate, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said CII has framed a
“code of business ethics” that many businesses are supporting. He said India is
suffering from not just corruption
in business-to-government dealings,
but also petty corruption that almost every citizen has to face. This is hurting the
economy and preventing Indian and foreign companies from investing in India.

Godrej
said corruption can be significantly reduced by making government processes and decision-making transparent and non-discretionary.
Punishment for corruption must be swift and certain, he said, adding that it is
more important in the long run to create
an economic environment where such acts do not pay; this can be achieved by ensuring
reasonable levels of taxes and relatively quick legal redress.

A
recent Transparency International survey revealed that two in four Indians said
they paid a bribe in the previous year, against an average of one in four
globally. However, 74% said corruption could be beaten, against just 49%
elsewhere. “When the people see laws are enforced, commitment at the top is
real, they will feel safer in saying no to corruption,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair,
Transparency International.

Labelle
said businesses can play a significant role if they decide on a zero-tolerance
policy to bribe-giving and publicly report everything they pay to the government.
India has ratified the UN Convention on Corruption, and it can find a place among
the top 10 in Transparency International’s rankings within three to four years,
provided the right institutions are created and allowed to function.

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